DISCOGRAPHY 1990-2013 (14CD)
BIOGRAPHY
The Holmes Brothers are a vocal and instrumental trio originally from
Christchurch, Virginia. Mixing sounds from blues, soul, gospel, and rhythm
and blues, they have released nine original albums, with two reaching the
top 5 on the Billboard Blues Albums chart.
They have gained a following by playing regularly at summer folk,
blues, gospel, and jazz festivals. They’ve recorded with Van Morrison,
Peter Gabriel, Odetta, Phoebe Snow, Willie Nelson, Rosanne Cash, Levon
Helm and Joan Osborne, and have gigged all over the world—including
performing for President Bill Clinton.
They won the Blues Music Award from the Memphis-based Blues Foundation
for Band of the Year in 2005 and for the Soul Blues Album of the Year in
2008. USA Today calls The Holmes Brothers’ music "Rootsy R'n'B, gospel and
country. They are glorious, full of soul and surprises." The New Yorker
says, “The Holmes Brothers are capable of awesome achievements.” National
Public Radio adds, “Their voices are rough enough for a juke joint and
smooth enough for church.”
Sherman and Wendell Holmes were born and raised in Christchurch,
Virginia. Their schoolteacher parents fostered the boys’ early interest in
music as they listened to traditional Baptist hymns, anthems and
spirituals as well as blues music by Jimmy Reed, Junior Parker and B.B.
King. They both sang in the church choir. Sherman studied clarinet and
piano before taking up the bass, while Wendell learned trumpet, organ and
guitar. Sherman studied composition and music theory at Virginia State
University, but in 1959, he dropped out and headed to New York for a job
playing with a singer named Jimmy Jones (of Handy Man fame). His younger
brother Wendell joined him after completing high school.
The two brothers played in a few bands before forming The Sevilles in
1963. The group lasted only three years, but they often backed up touring
blues and soul acts such as artists like The Impressions, John Lee Hooker
and Jerry Butler, gaining experience. After The Sevilles disbanded,
Sherman, Wendell and a fellow Virginian, drummer Popsy Dixon, continued to
play in a variety of Top 40 bar bands. Wendell also toured with Inez and
Charlie Foxx (Mockingbird) until 1979.
Sherman, Wendell, and Popsy convened in the form of a new group known as
the Holmes Brothers in 1979. The three share vocals (some solo and some in
gospel-inspired harmony), with Sherman playing bass, Wendell on guitar and
piano, and Popsy on drums.
The band frequently plays with additional musicians as well. The trio
moved from their hometown of Christchurch, Virginia to Harlem where they
regularly performed at blues clubs, most notably Dan Lynch's, a center of
the local New York City blues scene. Here the Holmes Brothers formed
working relationships with future blues/folk stars such as Joan Osborne
and members of Blues Traveler.
The group signed with Rounder Records in 1989 and released their first
album, In the Spirit the following year. Four subsequent albums would be
recorded for the label. In 1992, the Holmes Brothers were signed to Peter
Gabriel's Real World Records as the first American act on the prestigious
world music label. In the mid 1990s the group performed with Van Morrison
and recorded the soundtrack to the independent film Lotto Land, in which
they also starred. In 1997, they were hired by Joan Osborne as her backing
band for a tour supporting Bob Dylan.
In 2001 the Holmes Brothers signed with Alligator Records. Their first
album for the label was the critically acclaimed Speaking in Tongues,
produced by Joan Osborne. Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune called it a
“joyous, foot-stomping carnival…a gift to the world of music.” The Chicago
Sun-Times called it, "A Breathtaking and heartfelt journey through
gospel-drenched soul, blues, funk and country."
The Holmes Brothers appeared on television on The Late Show With David
Letterman and The CBS Saturday Early Show, as well as on NPR’s Weekend
Edition, A Prairie Home Companion and Mountain Stage. In addition, The
Holmes Brothers appeared on the M.C. Records tribute to Sister Rosetta
Tharpe, Shout, Sister, Shout, backing Joan Osborne, Odella, Victoria
Williams and Phoebe Snow.
In 2003 the group recorded two songs for the soundtrack album for the TV
series Crossing Jordan. Also in 2003, Peter Gabriel released the single,
"Burn You Up, Burn You Down," featuring backing vocals by The Holmes
Brothers.
Following their next album for Alligator, Simple Truths, they appeared on
Outlaws And Angels—The Willie Nelson and Friends 3rd Annual Birthday
Concert (televised on USA Network and released on CD and DVD), Late Night
With Conan O’Brien, World Cafe, Mountain Stage, as well as the nationally
broadcasted NPR programs All Things Considered, On Point and Here And Now.
Simple Truths and its followup Alligator album, State of Grace, became the
first two Holmes Brothers albums to reach the Billboard charts, with both
reaching the top five of the Blues Albums chart.
After the release of State of Grace, the band again performed on Late
Night With Conan O’Brien. Features and reviews ran in USA Today, The New
York Times, Billboard, Time Out New York, Rolling Stone, The New Yorker
and many other publications. The album won the Blues Music Award for Soul
Blues Album Of The Year. Reviewer David Fricke of Rolling Stone called the
album “impressive, fervent country soul.”
On March 2, 2010, the brothers released the album Feed My Soul, which was
inspired in part by Wendell's recent bout with cancer.